If you have no experience go to your local thrift store and buy a manual 35mm slr film camera. Buy a bunch of film on ebay and have it developed at your local photoshop as you chat up the sales people and check out the dlsrs they have. After a year of this you should have enough money saved for a good dlsr. Hopefully by then you will understand how to focus with the aperture. This will make your experience with photography more satisfying.

If you have no experience go to your local thrift store and buy a manual 35mm slr film camera. Buy a bunch of film on ebay and have it developed at your local photoshop as you chat up the sales people and check out the dlsrs they have. After a year of this you should have enough money saved for a good dlsr. Hopefully by then you will understand how to focus with the aperture. This will make your experience with photography more satisfying.

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I don't agree with that approach. You could get a good P&S with manual functions for a couple hundred if you don't want to drop the money on a dSLR system. Then you won't have to worry about development or film costs.

I don't know if this is an appropiate place to jump in. Apologies if not.

I bought my first DSLR last week. I read reviews and talk to people and used a few buddies. I still have my Canon film SLR, but I wanted digital. Because my buddies had the Canon XTi and I had the lenses that it'd be natural to continue on the same course. However, after holding the Nikon D80 in my hand for a while, the choice was obvious, it was a fit. It was a lot more money than I was figuring on to spend, but I can grow with it. I'm going to have a lot of questions in the near future but I would like to ask for some advice first.

I have seen camera specific ebooks on what all the bells and whistles are, how to use them and when to use them. Yes, I have read the owners manual, but I've run out of toothpicks to keep the eyelids open. Again, brand new to digital, are these ebooks worth a shot?

About this site. What is a Flickr and do I need one. How do you find the monthly challenge. Are there any other navigations that are worth noting?

i had a d50 for a year and recently got a d80. i like the feel of nikons. dslrs are expensive but if you are sure you are going to be using it alot and have the money, they are great to have.

kundalini, flickr is a site where you can upload pictures to store them. as you can see in my signature, i have a flickr. there is a free version that limits how much upload space you have per month, and a free one that has virtually unlimited upload amount. its easy to use and there are groups that you can join to share your pics with others and learn more about photography. its not a bad idea to srt up a free account to try it out.

kundalini: I have never read a camera specific book just flipped through and to me all they are is a more detailed instruction manual. I think it would be just as easy and cheaper to flip through the manual and concentrate on things like shutter speed, aperture value, and ISO. Learn what exposure is and how to manipulate it using those 3 things listed.

Flickr is just a picture hosting site. I put my best pictures on there to share with other people, and I'm part of groups related to what I like to shoot. It doesn't cost anything but there are limitations to how many groups of pictures you can create and how many pictures you can have on there. I upgraded to the pro membership I think it was only like $30 for a year or something I can't remember.

I know what you are saying about the feel of the camera being so important. My parents have always had Canon, from film rebels to a digital rebel. So naturally I got an XT, and I love the feel of it got used to it and its great. Whenever I pick up my parents Rebel I don't like the feel of it. Its huge and bulky.

Thanks, I'll set up an account because one thing I have realized from this site is that honest feedback is given, regardless of the question. I'm gonna want some critique when I start uploading photos.

One thing that cracks me up is when someone poses a question and either doesn't understand why an answer is another question or has their feelings hurt, they lash out with sarcastic come backs. Then you guys let the bullets fly. Good on 'ya. There's no reason for poor attitudes.

Tomorrow night there will be a 2nd annual downtown celebration in Raleigh for reopening the street in front of the capitol. It will end in fireworks. This will be my first "project". Any suggestions on how I should approach this strategically?

Along with the D80 I have a 18-55 kit lens and a f/4-5.6 55-200 VR, ML-L3 remote, 2x freshly charged batteries, 2x 2gig mem cards and tripod (of course). I have Image Quality set at RAW & JPEG Fine. (haven't decided on the software yet, so I save the RAW files over to the side for later).

I would also recommend buying a film SLR. With many brands, you'll be able to keep using the lens(es) it comes with if you eventually move to digital.
Nowadays, you can geat insultingly cheap many great film manual cameras. Nikon FM woulb be just an example. Canon AE1, another one; any Minolta X series; and so on...

By the way, I would also recommend trying more describing titles for your next threads. That way we all can benefit better from the forum